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Smartphones have clearly become an indispensable part of our lives and society, keeping us connected and aware of minute-to-minute breaking news, weather systems, even changes in marital status of pop icons and celebrities.

This is the premise of a new paper published online in the journal, NeuroRegulation, in which San Francisco State researchers studied the smartphone habits and usage of 135 students enrolled at the University.

Erik Peper, Professor of Health Education, and Richard Harvey, Associate Professor of Health Education, propose that excessive use of smart phones bears striking similarities to those diagnosed with substance abuse.

Their conclusion is simple: the heaviest smartphone users exhibited the greatest degree of depression, anxiety and loneliness, and isolation.

"The behavioral addiction of smartphone use begins forming neurological connections in the brain in ways similar to how opioid addiction is experienced by people taking Oxycontin for pain relief— gradually," explained Peper in a news release.

The researchers concluded that being addicted to the technology powering social media technology may actually have an adverse effect on nurturing and developing new social connections.

Loneliness, the researchers believe, stems from the absence of body language and other social cues normally associated with face-to-face communication. The issue is is that visual signals can't be interpreted when people use texting as form of communication. The researchers also pointed out that these same students also repeatedly multitasked while studying, eating, attending class, or while engaged watching other forms of media. This incessant level of activity, they explain, doesn’t allow you to physically or mentally decompress and relax. This leads to a phenomenon known as "semi-tasking," in which people are engaged in 2 or more tasks simultaneously. In other words, its hard to perform both tasks well, so that the quality of one unfortunately suffers.

One key point the authors of the paper make is that digital addiction has developed from the tech industry's yearning to boost corporate profits. "More eyeballs, more clicks, more money," explained Peper.

The bells and whistles of the smartphone—pings, chimes, vibrations, push notifications—lure us in to peek at them by activating the same neural circuits in our brains that activate the flight or fight response—such as incoming danger from a predator. "But now we are hijacked by those same mechanisms that once protected us and allowed us to survive—for the most trivial pieces of information," added Peper.

But just as we can practice restraint—such as by cutting caloric intake—we can also make a conscious effort to reduce our addiction to our smartphones and tablets. By acknowledging that tech companies are essentially tinkering with our biological responses to incoming danger, we can reclaim control by turning off push notifications, and only answer texts and emails during specific times of the day.

We need to devote time to ourselves, nourish our brains and engage in exercise as an antidote to smartphone addiction. Reconnecting with nature, taking time to look at our surroundings—instead of burying our heads in our phones—is a step in the right direction.